MARD Curriculum
The MA of Rural Development (MARD) is a 2-year English-taught program spanning four semesters of study.
1. Credits
The Master of Arts (M.A.) in Rural Development consists of a total of 180 credit hours that have to be accumulated over two years of study. The students will accumulate 120 credit hours for each of the two semesters. Other 15 credit hours will be accumulated after successful development of the research proposal. Other 45 credit hours will be obtained after successful completion of the dissertation.
2. Rationale
About 75.4% of Tanzanians are employed in agricultural and fishery occupations with 87.6% of them living in rural areas (NBS, 2014). The government has, for years, been working towards improving the rural sector. However, rural dwellers are still faced with challenges including food insecurity; income poverty; unsustainable utilization and inequitable sharing of natural resources leading to many conflicts; and poor water supply, health and education services, just to mention but a few of the challenges.
In order to contribute to addressing those challenges, establishment of the Master of Arts in Rural Development (MARD) degree programme was started in 1996 to produce graduates with advanced knowledge and skills to conduct advanced research and formulate and manage various interventions to improve well being in rural and urban areas. Graduates of the MARD are expected to implement strategies addressing development challenges in rural and urban areas. There is a great linkage between rural and urban based needs, whereby urban areas are potential markets for produces from rural areas.
Based on a tracer study which the then Development Studies Institute (DSI staff) conducted in 2010, it was found that there have been some fundamental changes in terms of job requirements; more and more employers prefer more specialized and more focused employees who have relevant practical skills. In view of that, addition of courses that are more focused with respect to the trend of the job market was done. The new courses include Human resource management; Development policy and management; Land Reforms, Tenure and development; Microfinance and Rural micro financing; Governance and development; Entrepreneurship and development; and Advanced poverty analysis. Besides the new courses, some previously taught courses as part of the curriculum were improved, particularly Rural development issues which was renamed Contemporary rural development issues, and Political economy for agrarian change which was renamed Political Economy of Rural Development. The contents of the two courses were also improved.
The MARD degree programme was formulated to raise awareness of students on complicated development issues confronting Tanzania so that they can contribute efficiently and effectively to poverty-reduction endeavours. This awareness on development complexities becomes even more crucial for Tanzania as it is becoming increasingly incorporated into the East African Community, and into various development partnerships in Africa and at the global level.
3. Purpose of the MARD Programme
3.1. The Main Purpose
The purpose of the MARD degree programme is to produce professionals capable of solving rural development challenges through analysis of strategies and policies geared at reducing rural poverty and generating equitable economic growth.
3.2. The specific objectives of the proposed programme are to:
i. Impart appropriate knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary in the social and economic transformations of the rural communities.
ii. Instil in students a thorough and an in-depth comprehension of the contemporary theory and practices of rural development, emphasizing on how the social, economic, political and cultural dimensions are relevant to rural development;
iii. Build capacity of students to be professional researchers and practitioners in the area of rural development, both nationally and internationally;
iv. Prepare graduates who can apply contemporary knowledge and skills in rural development for solving rural challenges;
v. Produce graduates who can apply good governance principles as a means towards sustainable utilization of scarce resources in rural areas;
vi. Apply relevant knowledge and skills in entrepreneurship for self-employment.
3.3. Expected Programme Learning Outcomes
The programme intends to produce graduates who will be able to:
i. Undertake research studies and surveys in social science fields, perform data analysis and interpretation;
ii. Analyze food security and insecurity incidences, design and manage programmes for food security improvement;
iii. Analyze the political economy of rural development;
iv. Carry out policy and poverty analysis and design, monitor and evaluate development projects and programmes;
v. Conduct assessment of levels of degradation of the natural resources and its impact on livelihood;
vi. Carry out regional and rural development planning;
vii. Conduct gender analysis in development programmes; and
viii. Influence policy formulation and reforms.
4. Programme Structure and Course Contents
The courses that comprise the MA (RD) Degree programme will be taught in Year 1, which is divided into Semesters 1 and 2, and are listed in Tables 1 and 2 together with the notional and credit hours for them. The ante DS stands for Development Studies, which is the Institute where DS courses are taught.
4.1. Programme Structure
The structure of the MA (Rural Development) degree programme is given in Tables below in terms of courses comprising the programme, and their hours and credits.
Year One: Course work
Courses for semester 1
|
CORE COURSES |
|
|
|
Course Ante |
Course Title |
Credits |
|
DS 600 |
Research Design And Methods |
9.0 |
|
DS 601 |
8.0 |
|
|
DS 605 |
Regional &Rural Development Planning |
6.0 |
|
DS 608 |
Project Planning, Appraisal, and Implementation |
6.5 |
|
DS 612 |
Contemporary Rural Development Issues |
7.5 |
|
DS 619 |
Advanced Poverty Analysis |
8.0 |
|
AEX 608 |
Sociology of Development |
4.5 |
|
Total Core |
|
49.5 |
|
ELECTIVE COURSES |
|
|
|
Course Ante |
Course Title |
Credits |
|
DS 602 |
Demography and Development |
6.0 |
|
DS 607 |
Natural Resources and Environmental Management |
7.0 |
|
DS 610 |
Rural Industrialization |
6.5 |
|
DS 613 |
Human Resources Management |
8.0 |
|
IPM 600 |
Research Innovations Management and Commercialization |
10.0 |
|
Total Elective |
37.5 |
|
Courses for semester 2
|
CORE COURSES |
|
|
|
Course Ante |
Course Title |
Credits |
|
DS 603 |
Gender and development |
6.5 |
|
DS 604 |
Political Economy of Rural Development |
6.0 |
|
DS 606 |
Public Policy Analysis |
7.0 |
|
DS 609 |
Project Monitoring and Evaluation |
8.0 |
|
DS 615 |
Entrepreneurship and Development |
7.0 |
|
DS 617 |
Land Reforms and Development |
6.0 |
|
DS 620 |
Research proposal development |
15.0 |
|
AEX 601 |
Rural Sociology |
6.5 |
|
Total Core |
|
57.0 |
|
ELECTIVE COURSES |
|
|
|
Course Ante |
Course Title |
Credits |
|
DS 614 |
Rural-urban Linkages |
6.0 |
|
DS 616 |
Governance and Development |
6.0 |
|
DS 618 |
Microfinance and Rural Financing |
7.0 |
|
DS 621 |
Food Security |
6.0 |
|
DS 622 |
Intellectual Property Rights, Bio-resources and Rural Development |
7.0 |
|
Total Electives |
32 |
|
Year two: Dissertation
|
CORE COURSE |
|
|
|
Course Ante |
Course Title |
Credits |
|
DS 611 |
Dissertation |
60.0 |
|
TOTAL FOR YEAR 2 |
60.0 |
|